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People's Daily Online>>Opinion

Six-party talks should not be shelved

By Zhong Sheng (People's Daily)

16:03, January 20, 2012

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

Senior officials from the United States, South Korea, and Japan met in Washington on Jan. 17, their first meeting since the end of 2011, to exchange views on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, resumption of the six-party talks, and other issues.

It is worth noting that while trying to keep "open channels of communication," the three countries stressed again that the core goal of the six-party talks is the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

The Korean Peninsula is facing a delicate situation. China attaches great importance to preserving peace and stability on the peninsula, and hopes that the United States, South Korea, and Japan can play an active and constructive role in this regard.

The three countries are major stakeholders in the Korean Peninsula denuclearization process and key members of the six-party talks. Maintaining peace and stability on the peninsula is their duty, and an effective way of protecting their interests.

Admittedly, verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner is a major goal of the six-party talks. However, the September 19 Joint Statement, the most substantive outcome of the nuclear talks so far, shows that the main goals of the talks also include the normalization of the relations between concerned countries as well as establishment of a security mechanism for maintaining peace and stability in northeast Asia.

The statement is not outdated, and still has urgent practical significance. The six-party talks is a gradual process, and it is necessary to implement agreements reached at the talks in an all-round and balanced way.

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Anonymous at 2012-01-2699.61.66.*: Exactly McCarthy, the U.S. only uses North Korea as an excuse to put troops near China. Clearly, the North Koreans live much better lives after they attempted to overthrow the unified Korean government, and they obviously have no militaristic intentions for the poor, repressed people south of them. Wait a second, didn"t the North Koreans sink a South Korean vessel a few months ago? They were probably just confused and mistook the torpedo button for some kimchi. And the artillery fire on a South Korean island was just their way of saying "We love you guys".
McCarthy at 2012-01-21206.125.65.*: If the United States had wanted to restart the 6 party talks they would be taking place right now. The United States does not want the talks and so they set unrealistic pre conditions. The answer to why the US does want to re start talks lies in the fact that if successful and peace and security was to take hold what excuse would the United States have for maintaining 30,000 troops along with nuclear weapons in the ROK? The US wants those troops and planes and missles to remain because they are really aimed at China as well as the DPRK. The DPRK is just a convenient excuse for there existence as is the so called South China Sea disputes an excuse for the US to show an aggressive posture in Asia aimed directly at China, under the guise of shipping lane security.